Dignity of The Human Person
Christian organizations are challenged to respond to a number of concerns about the issue of the dignity of the human person, especially in relation to scientific study. Much of the debate has to do with the question of at what point the soul enters the body. Catholics believe that the soul enters the body at the moment of conception when the sperm and egg unite. Thus, Catholics and other Christian denominations that share this belief may see embryonic cloning as tantamount to live human experimentation and therefore contrary to God's will.
Most Christians believe that a person has intrinsic dignity based on his being created in the image and likeness of God and in his call to communion with God. This brings the question of the morality of human cloning into a realm beyond that of science, and into that of religion, as this dignity cannot be empirically proven.
Read more about this topic: Christian Views On Cloning
Famous quotes containing the words dignity of the, dignity of, dignity, human and/or person:
“The genuine remains of Ossian, or those ancient poems which bear his name, though of less fame and extent, are, in many respects, of the same stamp with the Iliad itself. He asserts the dignity of the bard no less than Homer, and in his era, we hear of no other priest than he.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The dignity of art probably appears most eminently with music since it does not have any material that needs to be discounted. Music is all form and content and elevates and ennobles everything that it expresses.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“It’s immoral to steal, but you can take things.
The dignity of his office is never impaired by the absence of efforts on his part to maintain it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“The end product of child raising is not only the child but the parents, who get to go through each stage of human development from the other side, and get to relive the experiences that shaped them, and get to rethink everything their parents taught them. The get, in effect, to reraise themselves and become their own person.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“But, in history, practical usefulness never determines the moral value of an achievement. Only the person who increases the knowledge humanity has about itself and enhances its creative consciousness permanently enriches humanity.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)